The government also purchases surplus foods like cheese, milk, pork, and beef for distribution to food assistance programs—including school lunches. The government is not required to purchase nutritious foods. (Link)

If anyone thinks that the Government isn’t already deeply entrenched in what you eat and what foods are available at low costs, they are either deeply misinformed or deliberately blind to the facts. We need smart policies that are designed for a healthy population instead of policies that line the pockets of the few at the expense of the rest of us. The surest way to keep the status quo is to fool people into thinking that diet and nutrition are entirely personal choices and not part of an economic and political system that effects each and every one of us.

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Wondermark » Archive » #601; The Discovery that Changed the World

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But what, I can hear you asking, is the process like writing on that little touch-screen keyboard? Not great. I certainly can’t type as fast as I can on a keyboard and it’s even slower than writing on paper. However, I’m not sure that is always a liability. Having to slow down a bit makes me consider my words more. It means that I am paying slightly more attention to the individual words and sounds than I might otherwise. I type moderately quickly, somewhere between 65 – 80 wpm depending on the computer and the ergonomics. Often, this speed means that I’m typing the first thoughts as they come into my head and stream through and are then gone replaced by the next thought and the next thought. Being forced to go slower means that each thought gets additional . . . well, thought before being committed to pixels. Also, I’m learning to ignore errors more on the iPhone and keep going because it’s much more tedious to fix misspellings on the iPhone than on a computer or even by hand. The truth is that when I misspell something I don’t have to fix it while I’m writing since it’s easy enough to fix later. Yet on a computer, I’ll break my train of thought to go back and fix any word in read I see. So, while on the one hand I’m slowing my thoughts down, I’m also training myself to keep moving forward instead of breaking out of the flow of the story to fix the mechanics of it.

Would I sit down and attempt to write a novel straight through on the iPhone? No. But because of Simpletext, I’m thinking of routinely writing first drafts of stories using either Textmate or Writeroom and saving them in my Simpletext folder so that I have them accessible wherever I go, whether that is on another computer or my iPhone. Scrivener remains my choice for longer projects, and as a place where I may very well import short stories after a draft or two, but keeping it simple with plain text files and a server that provides access wherever I go is making me rethink the tools and workflow I use for short works and early drafts.

If you’d like to read “Garlic in the Air,” you can find it at The Dueling Quill.

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Why do hospitals and medical offices–places where people are all ready feeling unwell or stressed or angry or sad or scared–insist on setting their tvs to the most divisive, emotionally charged, angry, vituperative channel? FOX can’t be good for anyone’s blood pressure.

Lost works better at the speed of Netflix. By which I mean that falling into the narrative like you might a fever dream that is intense but never goes anywhere can be an enjoyable experience. Watching several episodes a day for weeks on end and you end up sinking into the show in ways that an episode each week just doesn’t accomplish for me. 42 minutes every seven days leaves me way too much time to realize just how bad the writing is and how uninteresting most of the characters are and why I stopped watching halfway through the second season four years ago. This fall, when I watched five seasons in a little over a month, made me excited for the final season. So far I’ve been bored and disappointed.

Also, can somebody write a fraking show that deals with free will and personal responsibility instead of fate, destiny, and all other ethical dodges that deny individual agency? And yes, I’m looking at you Lost, but also at you too Battlestar Galactica.

I honestly don’t understand why people care about the Oscars. Or any televised awards show for that matter.

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I ask this in all sincerity because I’d really like someone to provide a well-reasoned argument that, say, Anthem Blue Cross, is more trustworthy and effective at promoting civic well-being than the government.

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Flickr Photo Download: Wife helping her husband

h/t Buzzfeed

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Give us your ideas on how we can:

Work better with others inside & outside the government
Solicit feedback from the public
Improve the availability & quality of information
Be more innovative & efficient
Create EPA’s Open Government Plan

Transparency and the willingness of government agencies to actively solicit public opinion only works if we are paying attention. So if you have an idea, or even if you don’t, head over to the website and participate in the discussion because the only way for the We, the People to participate in our governance is to participate.

h/t BoingBoing

The Tea Party’s choice in the Florida Republican primary, Marco Rubio, began his address to a crowd of conservative conventioneers by taking a shot at President Obama for reading from a teleprompter. He did it while standing in front of two easily visible teleprompters. Rubio Slams Obama’s Teleprompter While In Front Of Telemprompters At CPAC

The reality blinders on these people are astounding.

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